Meal Prep Help!

Tayykisses

I've decided to start meal prepping every sunday for the week, with my super hectic schedule I think this will be my best bet at losing weight....

That's where I need help!

Any tips/recipes to try?

Thanks in advance

deetails26

Do you use Pinterest? THats where I find a ton of my recipes. You could easily double/triple any favorite recipe and make it for your week. I just made this last night for my weekly lunches, its so yummy. I have it with rice https://www.bloglovin.com/blogs/chelseas-messy-apron-11239419/one-pan-healthy-italian-sausage-veggies-5396513239

Tayykisses

dlboyle26 wrote: »

Do you use Pinterest? THats where I find a ton of my recipes. You could easily double/triple any favorite recipe and make it for your week. I just made this last night for my weekly lunches, its so yummy. I have it with rice https://www.bloglovin.com/blogs/chelseas-messy-apron-11239419/one-pan-healthy-italian-sausage-veggies-5396513239

I love Pinterest! That sausage recipe looks amazing! Definitely going to try that, my husband is a big sausage fan anyways! What do you "search" to find different recipes on Pinterest, most of the time when i search "healthy meals" or something like that i get chicken, chicken and more chicken... Don't want to get burnt out on the same foods.

danigirl1011

Overnight oats, mason jar salads, bags of veggies are all really easy to prep ahead. I also like to do however many hard boiled eggs i might need on sundays for the week. Low fat cheese sticks are a great grab and go. Packing it all up the night before or keeping some of it at work as well can help. I have seen things on pinterest to help. Packing grapes, carrot sticks, cheese stick and a hard boiled egg in a container or baggie together make great snacks/meals. Pinterest also has a recipe for cherry almond energy bites (oats, almond butter, honey, unsweetened cocounut, i used almond extract, flax seeds, chia seeds and a little bit of dark chocolate if you want it) and they are quick to make and makes about 18 or 20 of them. I take 2 a day for a snack about 2 hours after i have started the day with a cheese stick and hard boiled egg and i am full until 1pm for lunch. They are great.

fitzmonkey13

For your first go at it, I really recommend trying recipes you already know how to make. Then start small, like introducing one or two new recipes per week. Meal planning is tedious and frustrating, but it gets easier the longer you do it.

But here's how it works for me... On Friday or Saturday I go through my list of what's in the freezer, look at the calendar for the following week and come up with a plan... I note what nights are super busy and when I have time for a more leisurely meal prep. Then I'll make my grocery list based on the recipes. If I'm doing a crock pot meal one day, I'll cut and prep everything I can and pop everything but the liquid into a freezer bag so it's ready to dump in the crock pot. If I need rice or farro or quinoa for a meal one night, I'll cook it and freeze it so all I have to do is reheat. I'll measure out smoothie ingredients into containers so I can just dump and blend. And I usually make a dish that tastes good cold for lunches like a quinoa or farro salad, then parcel out into individual servings.

Also, I pretty much always cook double what I need so I can pack leftovers for hot lunches or quick meals. Once you do that for a while, you won't need to do as much on a Sunday in the kitchen. I generally make hummus every other week and pack in individual servings for lunches, bake protein bars, breakfast bars or muffins on the opposite week and do a big soup/stew or chili that I freeze in single or double servings (I usually end up with 2-3 options in the freezer for that type of thing since I rotate recipes.)

Each night after dinner while we are washing up, we take the next day's meals out of the freezer and put into the fridge to defrost, blend our morning smoothies, etc.

It helps to have a lot of containers that are the same size so that you can figure out portions consistently. I stocked up on those ziploc containers in all different sizes and it makes a world of difference.

Also, I strongly recommend starting by doing a 100% inventory of your fridge, freezer and cupboards. Try to keep that up to date so you aren't wasting money buying ANOTHER bag of frozen peas when you already have 3 eating valuable real estate and a cupboard full of part bags of red lentils. (Not that I know anyone like that. Nope. Definitely not me.)

It really is the best way to maintain sanity while trying to make healthier choices. After all, if you already have something tasty planned, you won't be as tempted to stop for takeout or order a pizza. And, it lets you plan indulgences like pizza night in advance so you can work it into your plan.

kimny72

Some people like to prep entire meals for the week, others prep ingredients. I prep ingredients - first because I find no matter how well I plan, I end up wanting something different at meal time and ignoring the meals I have prepped (yeah I'm kind of an idiot, lol). Second because I'm not great at the whole planning and organization thing in the first place.

So before I go food shopping I make sure I have some condiments (like soy sauce, bbq sauce, tomato paste, etc) and make sure I pick up enough snacks (yogurt, string cheese, jerky, nuts). I will boil a half dozen eggs, bake off some chicken, cook a pot of rice or barley, or maybe some lentils or beans. I'll wash and prep whatever fruits and veggies can take it. Then I have all of that pre or par cooked and in the fridge, so I just combine whatever I want to make a meal when the time comes.

I envy the people who are capable at actually planning and sticking to their meals, hopefully more of them come by and offer some guidance. Hopefully I'll join them someday

fitbethlin

In addition to great suggestions above, you can also consider looking at OnceAMonthMeals.com . I'd suggest the same as someone above about only incorporating one or two new recipes at a time. On that website, you can see the recipes without paying for anything and get an idea of if it might work for you. If it does, commit to paying for it so you can customize your menu and get your money's worth of the grocery lists, prep, and cooking instructions. You can also do the same thing even easier if there's a Dream Dinners franchise near you. Those methods cost money, but you're outsourcing some of the work.

fitoverfortymom

Find some containers you like. I've been using Sistema dual-compartment ones. They seem to hold almost exactly 100g of any vegetable I've thrown at it (except snap peas which come in around 85g). These fit nicely in my lunchbox.

I'm pretty boring for breakfast/lunch all week so I can be flexible for dinners which I share with my family.